Part Two: Evy and the Ghost
by forgotten-magick
Summary: Jack's daughter Evy struggles to make her way from California to the uncles she's never met in Detroit. Through it all, Jack ghost follows her.
1. San Francisco

**So I'm writing the story about Evy before I start my huge crossover one. This way I can write another sad story that all of you can cry through (you know you love it) and I can pretend like I'm working out my own issues (because the family shrink says if I don't then I'll "spend the rest of my life miserable, alone, and unable to trust or love anyone".) To think, I actually sit there and let this woman insult me.**

**Anyway, moving on. I'm taking this from a few hours after her mother's funeral.**

**Thanks to everyone who's reviewed my other stories, hope you enjoy this one just as much. I guarantee that you'll be misty eyed by the end of this chapter, but if you don't like really depressing ones, give this a chance anyway, cause it's cool.**

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Evy Mercer sat on her new bed and stared around in shock. _Gross_, she thought, taking in the pink, fluffy decorations that filled the room her grandmother, Rosalee Winston, had made up for her. _No wonder Mommy never brought me around here, there oughta be a law against this kind of abuse._

"Evy, dinner is in twenty minutes!" her grandmother's voice issued suddenly out of an intercom box by the bedroom door. "Please wash and change before it's ready."

Evy snickered. Change? What was she supposed to change? Her worn out punk/Goth clothing? Her hair that stuck out all over the place? Her orphan status? The fact that she was six years old and thought more like a teenager than a kid? _Change sucks,_ she thought, walking over and clicking the off button on the intercom so that she wouldn't have to hear her grandmother's wheezy voice anymore.

Walking back over to the bed, Evy started to rummage through the stuff she'd been given from the apartment after her mother died. The CD collection that Jack and Grace had put together, books (mostly about old rock stars), a few photo albums, her dad's old guitar, the family snapshots that had covered the walls, all the clothes that had been in her room and a few things that had belonged to her mother, the old notebooks that had belonged to Jack, and two small leather-bound journals she'd never seen before.

Evy grabbed a Queen CD and popped it into her player before dropping onto her bed and opening the first journal. Tears filled her eyes as she read the first page.

**THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO:**

_Jack Lansid . . . as if you fucking care_

It was her Dad's journal. He must have started it during one of his foster home stays. She didn't know much about her father's childhood, her mom had always said that it was too painful for Jack to talk about and that Evy was too young to understand anyway. _I guess we'll see now,_ Evy thought bleakly. She flipped to the next page.

_"Fuck you people, that's what I really wanna say. My social worker is making me write this shit down so that I can 'deal with and work through my issues'. God, I'd laugh my ass off if that asshole wasn't serious. Sorry to disappoint you Trevor Jonsen, but writing down the fact that I've been beaten and raped all through my first eleven years of life isn't going to help. If you're the kind of sick fuck who gets off on that, then you'll enjoy this, but if not, it's stupid. Wait, there is no 'if'. This is the stupidest fucking thing anyone's ever made me do. I'll be a good boy and write down all the gory details, but I'll be damned if I ever, EVER talk about this shit again."_

Evy closed the journal. He sounded so angry, Jack had never been angry around her. Never once could she remember him raising his voice or having a harsh word for anyone. God how she missed him.

"Evy, why on earth are you still up here?" her grandmother demanded, throwing the bedroom door open. "Dinner was ready nearly ten minutes ago! Why did you ignore the intercom?"

"I didn't," Evy said, standing up and turning to face the old woman.

"Of course you did!" the old hag insisted. "I've been calling you and you don't come, that's called ignoring someone!"

"No it isn't," Evy replied coolly. "I turned that damn thing off, so it wasn't ignoring you, it was just not listening."

"How dare you?" Grandmother Winston snapped. "How dare you speak to me with such disrespect? If your mother were her she'd-"

"She'd tell you to get the fuck out of my room," Evy snarled, anger welling up inside her. "And she'd remind you that you aren't my mother, you're just the bitch grandmother who thought that everything my mom did was wrong. and she's tell your wrinkly ass to fucking knock before you came into the room, that's what she'd do! Now get the hell out of my room!"

The old woman drew herself up and gave Evy a disgusted look. "All of that obviously came from the useless idiot my Gracie took up with," she snapped. "I raised my daughter with manners, ones that drug-addict loser obviously killed in you!" Before Evy could reply, the woman stomped out of the room and slammed the door.

Evy was shaking with rage. Useless idiot? Drug-addict loser? Bullshit. Evy would be sure that her dear grandmother regretted those comments. She'd make sure the woman crawled on her knees to apologize.

Even though she was starving, Evy turned away from the door. She'd wait til the old bag went to bed and then go find something. She searched through her stack of CDs until she found the _Rent_ soundtrack. She popped it into her CD player and pulled on one of Jack's old sweatshirts. Curling up on the bed, Evy turned the volume up and slipped on her headphones. Skipping forward, she felt tears start to fall as the opening bars of "One Song Glory" trilled into her ears.

_One song, glory, one song_

_Before I go, glory_

_One song to leave behind_

Jack had been writing her a song when he left. He said it would be his best work ever. Not that it really mattered to Evy. The simple fact that he wrote it for her would make it the best song ever.

_Find one song, one last refrain, glory_

_From the pretty boy front man_

_Who wasted opportunities._

Jack had said once that he wasted the first twenty-two years of his life because he wasn't with Evy. When she'd pointed out that she was only three, he just smiled and said, "If I'd been paying attention, I would've realized that I'd been waiting for you my entire life.

_One song, he had the world at his feet, glory_

_In the eyes of a young girl, a young girl_

_Find glory, beyond the cheap colored lights_

Grace had once told Evy that Jack had been on his way to being a really famous singer and that he'd given it all up to come stay with them. That night when Evy asked her dad about it, he had laughed. "So long as you love me, what do I need with a fancy career?" Evy sobbed into the pillow, she could still hear him, still feel his arms holding her while he read a bedtime story to her.

_One song, before the sun sets_

_Glory on another empty life_

_Time flies, time dies_

Time didn't seem to fly anymore. It felt like it stopped the instant Evy knew that her daddy was never coming home.

_Glory, one blaze of glory_

_One blaze of glory, glory_

Did Jack have glory in Heaven? Was he happy even though he wasn't with her anymore? Evy's sobs got louder and she buried her face in the fluffy quilt, desperately trying not to scream as the sadness inside swelled.

_Find, glory, in a song that rings true_

_Truth like a blazing fire, an eternal flame_

_Find one song, a song about love_

_Glory, from the soul of a young man_

_A young man_

Old people died, Evy knew that. She understood that sometimes people left and never came back, but dying was what grandparents and pets did. Jack was too young to die. He wasn't old yet and Evy wasn't a grown-up, kids had to be grown-ups before their parents died. It was just the way things were, every kid knew that. _My parents didn't know,_ Evy thought. If they had known that it was a rule, they would both still be alive, they wouldn't have left her.

_Find the one song_

_Before the virus takes hold, glory_

_Like a sunset_

_One song_

_To redeem this empty life_

Life felt empty now that her parents were gone. Evy wondered if she'd ever stop feeling like there was a big hole inside her.

_Time flies  
And then no need to endure anymore  
Time dies_

Jack and Grace didn't have to endure anymore. Evy knew they were both better off where they were. Jack wasn't thinking about the things he'd written in his diary. Grace wasn't staying in bed for weeks at a time only to suddenly wake up and think that Jack was still there, that he'd just run to the store. They were in Heaven with the angels. Evy sobbed even harder but she could feel herself starting to pass out. Sad, so sad . . . but so tired, so ready to dream and not think about what life was really like.

Just as she started to drift off, she could have sworn that she felt Jack's arms around her again.

- - - - -

When Evy woke up she felt like her head was splitting in half. Crying always did this to her, deep down Evy had always suspected that the reason she was in so much pain after she cried was because she wasn't supposed to cry.

"Right," she said, forcing herself to sit up. "No more crying then." She looked over at the pink, flower-shaped clock on the nightstand, nine o'clock in the morning. Running a hand over her face, Evy scrambled out of bed and grabbed some clothes before going into the powder blue bathroom her grandmother had "given" her. After a quick shower, Evy went back to her room and locked the door. She slipped Breaking Benjamin into her CD player and started going through the boxes full of her parents' stuff. Evy knew she wouldn't be staying in one place for too long until she could find her uncles, so it would be better to travel light.

All the pictures came out of their frames and were put into a large manila envelope. Most of the books would have to go, they would be too heavy to carry, besides, some of them were rare and were worth more in money than in memories. The CDs had to be thinned out as well. Taking all the clothes would be fine. If she could fit everything in two bags, she'd be good.

After about an hour, she'd done it. All her clothes were now (somewhat) neatly packed into a duffle bag while the few books, CDs and the pictures were in a backpack. Evy surveyed the remains dully, sadness creeping into her heart. Her dad's guitar would have to go, there was no way she'd be able to carry it around once she finally managed to hit the road. She knew that no one would try to help her find her father's family since he and Grace had never been married, but she had a name and a place and she would get there no matter what.

Her grandmother banged on the door. "Come out and eat something," she ordered in her high voice. Rolling her eyes, Evy shoved her duffle bag and backpack under the bed and got to her feet.

"Coming," she snapped, throwing open the door and stomping down to the dining room. Her grandmother was sitting at the table, anger twisting her face. She looked Evy up and down and her lip curled.

"Haven't you any more appropriate clothes to wear?" she asked. Evy looked down. Her jeans were old, but they didn't have holes in them and the hems were only a little frayed. The black KISS t-shirt she wore was clean as was her father's black hoodie she was wearing over them. The Converse sneakers she was wearing were new, Grace had gotten them for her about a week before she died. "What's wrong with this?" she asked.

Her grandmother sighed and gestured for Evy to sit. "Tomorrow I'll take you shopping," she said, ladling soup into her bowl and reaching out for Evy's. "We need to get you some proper clothing. Jeans and band t-shirts are _not_ proper attire for a young lady."

Evy barely managed not to roll her eyes. Mom had told her about Grandmother's weird ideas of being proper. "Skirts and dresses and stupid little hats," Grace had told her with disgust. "I hated it and promised myself I would never make my daughter wear that crap unless she wanted to."

Evy tried to eat her soup in peace, but no sooner had she put the first spoonful into her mouth when her grandmother started in on her. "Don't hold the spoon like that, Evy." "Don't slurp the soup." "Run the spoon slightly along the side of the bowl so that it doesn't drip." Finally Evy threw down her spoon and glared up at the old woman.

"If you want me to eat, leave me alone," she snarled. "If you want to bitch at me, tell me and I'll leave the table."

"I will not have you take that tone with me!" her grandmother snapped. "You will be respectful when you speak to me!"

"Fuck you!" Evy yelled, slamming the bowl off the table so that it shattered on the polished wood floor. Turning on her heel, she stalked out of the dining room ignoring her grandmother's yelling. Fury was coursing through her like fire. Evy really had no idea why she was so angry, but her temper had been boiling just below the surface for the past few years and it was starting to explode.

Running out the front door, Evy slammed the front door shut, pausing on the front porch to yell "Up yours!" as her grandmother screamed at her to come back. Whirling around, Evy saw a group of kids standing on the sidewalk at the end of her grandmother's lawn. There were two girls that were maybe a year or two older than she was and two boys who both looked older. Evy grinned at them. "Fucking nag," she said, jerking her head towards the front door.

The kids grinned. "No shit," the oldest boy said. He looked about 10 and was carrying a black skateboard under his arm. "I'm Dray. This is Liz, Greg, and Mags."

Evy nodded at them. "Evy," she said, walking down the porch steps to stand with them.

"You moved in here for good?" the younger girl, Mags, asked.

Evy shook her head and gave them another grin. "I'm just passing through." She fell into step beside the kids as they headed down the street. "Where do you live?"

Greg shrugged. "Wherever," he said. "We're all runaways."

"Is it hard to live like that?" Evy asked, a plan starting to take shape in her mind.

"At first," said Liz. "But once you get used to it, it's not too bad."

Evy nodded and turned the conversation to other stuff. While she listened to the four kids talk about the places they'd been and the things they'd done, she wondered why they were so open to her. Most people would've been more careful of the things they said around younger kids like her. Looking down at her reflection in a puddle, Evy shrugged. She didn't look six, she might be able to pass for nine or ten just because she was taller than most six-year-olds.

When night fell, Evy made her way back to her grandmother's house. When she turned the corner, she ducked back behind a large oleander bush. Police cars were parked in front of her grandmother's house as well as the grey car she recognized as her social worker's. "What the hell are they doing here?" she muttered. She smelled her breath and cursed the fact that she'd taken that swallow of booze before she headed back here, but there was nothing for it now. Gritting her teeth, Evy hitched an innocently surprised look onto her face and walked up the street to her grandmother's house.

"Hey Ms. Critchon," Evy said, walking up to her social worker. "What brings you here?"

Ms. Critchon glared down at her. "You should know perfectly well what brought me here, Evy," she snarled. "Running off like that, my God what were you thinking?" Grabbing Evy by the arm, the woman marched her past the police and into the house.

"It's alright officers," she said, casting Evy a withering look. "I've got our little runaway."

A fat officer with thick blonde hair and a fluffy moustache smiled kindly down at Evy. "You need to be more careful, sweetie," he said. "There're a lot of bad people out there and your grammy would be really sad if something happened to you."

Evy fixed the man with a mischievous grin. "Mister, I _am_ one of those weirdoes," she said. Jerking her arm out of Ms. Critchon's grasp, Evy swept past the policemen and went up to her room. "Call the cops on me, you old bitch," she hissed, fury twisting her face. "You'll regret that for sure."

- - - - -

Two weeks, several temper tantrums, packs of stolen cigarettes, and $1000 worth of brand new clothes cut to shreds later, a supremely pissed off Ms. Critchon was dragging Evy out of the San Francisco Court building. "Jesus," Evy said loudly, struggling against the woman. "That's all a bunch of lies, I didn't do anything to her!"

"A likely story!" Critchon snapped. "Then explain why we found cigarette butts and the scissors that went missing from you're Grandmother's sewing room in your bedroom? Planted them did she? Trying to frame you? Wanted to get rid of you?"

"You said it not me!" Evy shouted.

"Stop it!" the social worker yelled, grabbing Evy by the shoulders and shaking her. "You better shape up, young lady," Critchon said sternly. "If you keep behaving this way you'll never have a real family. You'll just be moved from foster home to foster home until you're eighteen and you'll never really belong anywhere. Is that what you want?" Evy glared down at the cracked sidewalk. "Is it?" repeated Critchon, shaking Evy again.

"I have a family," Evy snarled, shoving the woman away from her. "And if you people would just listen to me, we'd be able to find them and you wouldn't have to worry about me anymore!"

Ms. Critchon rolled her eyes. "Again with your supposed father's family," she said scathingly, pushing the button to unlock her car doors. "We have no proof that this Jack Mercer was really your father and we sure aren't going to go badger men with their own lives about some little girl that might not even have any relation to them."

Evy looked up, ready to smart off to the stupid woman, vent some more of her fury on someone else, but something brought her up short. Jack was standing there, glaring down at the woman. "Don't listen to her," he said, his voice taunt with anger. "She doesn't know what she's talking about. You wouldn't be a bother to your uncles, they'll love you." He glided forward, right through the car to Evy's side. Wrapping his arm around her, he whispered: "Find them, Evy. Find them." And then he was gone and only a tingling in Evy's shoulders remained.

"You coming or should I just leave you here for some bum to pick up?" Ms. Critchon snapped. Shaking her head as though to clear it, Evy climbed into the back seat. As they drove back to her grandmother's house, Evy ran through a list of things she'd done to make sure she'd be ready to go. Everything she was taking was squeezed into her bags and she's sold everything else that she'd gotten from her mother's apartment. Now, two thousand dollars was hidden underneath the insert in one of Evy's worn out sneakers. When the time came to run, she'd be ready.

- - - - -

Jack stepped back from the pond in his Heaven and dropped to the ground. Whoever that horrible woman was, she deserved nothing but Hell for the way she was treating Evy. "Fuck lady," he muttered angrily to no one. "She's a six year old who's lost both her parents, cut her a fucking break."

Getting to his feet, Jack walked back to the edge of the pool and knelt again to see what his brothers were up to. It was strangely addictive to him, watching the world continue without him. Even though he knew that the world kept turning even though someone died, he hadn't been ready for it to continue after his death. The idea that Evy still had to go to school, that Jerry still had to raise his kids, that Angel had to report back to the Marines, that Bobby had to go to work . . . it all seemed somehow wrong to him.

"I miss life," he whispered, his breath making little waves across the image of his brothers sitting at the dinner table. "I really fucking miss life."

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**So, does it rock? Is it crap? Should I give up writing and become a hermit in the mountains who steals children from Wilderness Jamborees and eats their liver?**

**Anyway, next chapter coming soon.**

**Review bitches, or I shalt smitith thee with mine Keyboard of Doom!**


	2. Monterey

**Wow, sorry it took so long to update this. Writer's block is a bitch. Bloody fucking unreliable figments of my imagination, they just won't do as I say.**

**Enn-ee-way, here it is, hope I can be more regular with my updates.**

**Please review!

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Evy groaned mentally as she forced tofu casserole down her throat. All around her, her first foster family joked and laughed with each other, seeming to enjoy the food and company. Evy just wished that she could be hiding up in her room.

The first month of being in this place had sucked beyond the telling. Monterey was a cool place and the house was huge. Sure, the people were nice, the other four kids they had were cool, and the house was comfortable and clean, but Evy would have traded all of it for a little peace and quiet in the messy, rundown apartment she and Grace had shared.

The Robinsons (now there was an original name) were pretty young, maybe only in their mid-30s. David was tall with curly brown hair and broad shoulders and Lila was petite and blonde with a dazzlingly white smile that for some reason made Evy wanted to kick something. They had two kids of their own, Rachel who was 12 and Annabelle who was 10. The boys were foster kids, Nathan (14) and Charlie (8). They had all been very nice to Evy, but she didn't care if they treated her like a queen and let her live in a palace, she was just passing through.

She had hoped that if she sat there and glared at them and never responded or did what they told her, the Robinsons would call Mrs. Critchon and tell her to come take the little creep away. So far, that plan was a bust. Evy let them catch her smoking, hanging out with the bad kids in the neighbourhood, not doing her chores, and destroying the room they'd given her, but nothing was working. They would just sit the whole family down in a "feeling circle" and try to talk out the problem.

Evy fought the urge to gag aloud as she thought about the previous night's FC. Nathan had fixed her with a stern look and explained all about his own experiences with the foster care system and how he had been angry once too. Charlie had followed his lead and talked about all the things he had done before he ended up with the Robinsons. The girls had merely reaffirmed the fact that they were waiting patiently to accept her as a sister. Evy had told them all to go to hell.

"Evy, did you hear me?" Lila asked suddenly.

The little girl glared up at her foster mother. "No. What?"

"School starts tomorrow, we've got you enrolled in the first grade, isn't that exciting?" the woman gushed.

Evy raised an eyebrow. "Woo-hoo," she said flatly. "School. Yay."

"And you'll be going to the same school as the rest of the family," David told her. "The Monterey Christian Academy is a wonderful school."

Evy choked, spitting the soda she'd just drunk all over the spotless white table cloth before her. "The what?" she demanded.

"The Monterey Christian Academy," Nathan said slowly. "It's the highest rated school in town. You'll love it there, as smart as you are."

"You're _Christians_?" Evy stammered, appalled. Suddenly, things clicked into place in her head. The weird singing they all did before they went to bed, all the Sundays when she'd woken up to find only Nathan and the Wednesday nights when he hadn't been around.

The Robinsons frowned slightly and looked at each other. "Of course we are Evy," David said. "And when you're ready to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and God as your Father, you'll be much better off in your life, surrounded by love and-"

But what else God would bring Evy went undefined as Evy jumped to her feet, knocking her chair to the floor with a loud bang. "I already have a father," she hissed, fury burning her again. "And I don't need God, Jesus, or any of you when I have that. I don't care what you say, I won't go to a school where I get preached at all day. I will ditch every day if I have to, but I will _not_ go." With that, she turned and ran out of the dining room. Sprinting up the stairs, she tore into her room, slamming the door and locking it before throwing herself down on the bed and letting tears fall.

Neither Grace or Jack had ever tried to get her to believe in God. Even though she was young, Evy understood that Jack didn't believe and Grace thought religion was something that should be decided on when you were older. Evy had never been much interested in church. Her friends talked about how much fun they had in Sunday school, but Sundays were always spent doing something fun with her parents, so Evy had never felt the urge to go. Somehow, knowing that these people were Christians felt like a betrayal to Evy. She shouldn't be here with these people, they weren't the family Jack and Grace would have chosen.

And that's when it hit her. Evy sat up, her eyes faraway as she stared blankly across the room. Family. Mrs. Critchon was trying to find her a family. Anger twisted the little girl's face for a moment. She didn't want, didn't _need_ a replacement family. She had a family: the Mercer's, wherever they were. The three years since Jack had left had dulled Evy's memories: she couldn't remember anymore exactly why her daddy had left, but she knew it was something to do with their family.

Evy kicked off her sneakers and slid between the sheets. Curled in the blue quilt that she had chosen from the household collection of linens, Evy repeated her family's names in the darkness. "Evelyn, Bobby, Angel, Jerry," she whispered, the words a mantra to her aching loneliness. "Evelyn, Bobby, Angel, Jerry."

_Family_. Evy sat bolt upright in her bed, staring in shock and fear at the shadowy corners of her room. Clear as day, she had heard her father's voice whispering in the darkness. "Daddy?" she asked hesitantly. "Daddy, are you here?"

But there was only silence, barely broken by the soft rumble of voices from downstairs. Evy buried her face in her hands and wrapped herself once more in the blankets as a song drifted through her head.

_At the end of the world_

_Of the last thing I see_

_You are_

_Never comin' home_

_Never comin' home_

Because if anything was certain in life, it was that Jack would never be there again. As much as she wished she was wrong, Evy knew that he was gone, that the world had lost her father and he could never come back. She fought back a scream as the perfect memory of Jack's voice swept through her mind.

_And all the things that you never ever told me_

_And all the smiles that are ever gonna haunt me_

_Never comin' home_

_Never comin' home_

* * *

Evy fell asleep with tears in her eyes just as she did every night. From the clear pool in Heaven, Jack watched, his long fingers caressing the curve of his daughters face through the flimsy barrier between life and death.

"Oh God," he whispered. "What can I do to help you, baby?"

He was at a loss. He had tried desperately to contact his brothers, give them some clue that there was someone out there waiting for them, that there was a family member that need help. Evy, the beautiful, precious, priceless treasure that she was lived unnoticed with strangers when her own family would have been the best place for her. So far, Jack hadn't been able to get any of them to pay attention to clues he tried to leave.

When Bobby had spilt warm beer on the table, Jack had concentrated as hard as he could on making his finger spell the words "Evy Mercer, Monterey, CA" in the foam, but his brother hadn't even looked at the mess before he dropped a towel on it and mopped it up. He had tried slipping into Jerry's dreams and telling him about Evy only to remember afterwards that Jerry was the only one of the brothers who never recalled his dreams after he woke up. Well, Bobby didn't dream at all, but Jack and Angel had always remembered their dreams in stunning detail. Angel too had been a bust. Jack had tried to appear to his brother when Angel was laying awake one night, but his brother had merely rolled over and buried his face in his pillow, trying to stop tears.

Jack ground his teeth in frustration and got to his feet. No matter what he did, he fucked things up. He was Jack Peter Mercer and there was nothing so good that he couldn't screw it up. He'd had a beautiful daughter, but he'd missed the first two years of her life and then he'd gone and died on her. He'd had a family he loved, but he'd moved across the country and he never saw them. He'd had a perfect Heaven that was everything someone like him normally would have wanted, and he'd pissed it away because he wanted to still feel alive.

Taking a deep breath, Jack let out a scream of rage and pain that echoed around the empty world around him. How could this be happening? How could he be so fucking helpless?

"Damnit," he whispered, wiping away the tears that had gathered in his eyes. "The one fucking time I really need my brothers to pay attention and they can't see." He went back to the pool and called up Bobby's face. As he stared at the crudely handsome image before him, Jack felt a gut-wrenching ache to be with them again. "Oh big brother," he whispered. "I miss you. You would be able to fix this, make it all okay. God Bobby, I wish I could be there."

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**So, hopefully I'll have the next chapter up in the next few days. I know that these first few chapters are a little boring, but soon they'll be picking up. The next chapter will even have a bit of the other Mercers in it, how exciting is that?**

**Anyway, please review.**


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